Soldiers' suicide prevention aid called inadequate

Updated 12:28 am, Saturday, June 23, 2012

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American flags wave near the grave of Marine Lance Cpl. Michael Harris as the the sun rises over Georgia National Cemetery on Memorial Day, Monday, May 28, 2012, in Canton, Ga. Harris died Feb. 6, 2012, in North Carolina.

American flags wave near the grave of Marine Lance Cpl. Michael Harris as the the sun rises over Georgia National Cemetery on Memorial Day, Monday, May 28, 2012, in Canton, Ga. Harris died Feb. 6, 2012, in

Marine Lance Corporal Michael Harris, age 21, who died in February 2012 while attached to Camp LeJeune.

Marine Lance Corporal Michael Harris, age 21, who died in February 2012 while attached to Camp LeJeune.

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American flags wave near Marine Lance Cpl. Michael Harris' grave marker, center, as the the sun rises over Georgia National Cemetery Monday, May 28, 2012, in Canton, Ga. Harris died Feb. 6, 2012, in North Carolina.

American flags wave near Marine Lance Cpl. Michael Harris' grave marker, center, as the the sun rises over Georgia National Cemetery Monday, May 28, 2012, in Canton, Ga. Harris died Feb. 6, 2012, in North

It lists 78 active-duty troops among the dead while 46 were in the guard and reserve.

Neither the trend line nor the fact that more troops across the services have killed themselves than have died this year in Afghanistan — 152 — is new. Experts already know that most of those who kill themselves are men and typically enlistees. So far this year, Army statistics show, 97 active-duty and reserve component victims held the ranks of private through staff sergeant.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, addressing the conference, called suicides the most frustrating issue he has encountered since taking the job a year ago. He said that despite the Pentagon's efforts, “the trends continue to move in a troubling and tragic direction.

“The greatest frustration is there are no easy answers here. There are no quick fixes, there are no simple solutions to the problem of suicide, but that doesn't mean that we can't do more to prevent it from happening,” he said.

“We can do more, we must do more and together we will do more to prevent suicides.”

Despite intense efforts to counter the problem, it worsened as troops repeatedly returned to Iraq and Afghanistan. The Defense Department has increased mental health staffs almost 35 percent since October 2010. It has a Military Crisis Line — 800-273-8255.

“We need to reinforce that coming forward and seeking help is not a sign of weakness, it is a sign of strength, and we need to get people to come in to get the help they need,” said Cynthia Smith, a suicide prevention office spokeswoman.

But a conference organizer, the wife of a Marine gunship pilot who killed himself in 2005, said the stigma of suicide still lingers after a decade of war.

“When they do go get help, they're often very sick or their injuries are very severe — psychological and physical — and the care they're getting is just not adequate for the kind of illness and injury they have,” said Kim Ruocco, support coordinator for Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors.

“There's lots of cracks in the system, there's long waits for treatments, the treatments they get are not necessarily comprehensive enough, there's lots of prescribing medication without also giving counseling,” she said.

“There's often not a lot of good monitoring of those psychotropic medications and other medications given out very freely. And families are kind of falling apart under the stain of this illness and this injury.”

Harris said his brother went to a counselor complaining he couldn't sleep for more than an hour at a time, and he was constantly irritable and anxious. A drug he got helped for a month, but he later had suicidal thoughts. Doctors switched medications, but he grew worse after only a week.

“So he went back again and said, ‘Look, I really need your help. I'm feeling depressed, I'm having suicidal thoughts, and I'm drinking too much,'” Harris told the audience.

“The nurse he was seeing told him that, ‘I'm sorry, since you've told me that you're drinking too much we can no longer help you because you now qualify as having substance abuse issues.' He left her office that day, and he called me, and he told me that he would only be going back one more time, to let them know that he would no longer be requiring their services.”